Tourists can now virtually explore some of Ireland’s top destinations, thanks to new additions on Google Street View.
Dublin Zoo, the Rock of Cashel, Fota Wildlife Park and the National Botanic Gardens are among the tourist attractions Google has recently added on Street View, Google’s online panoramic mapping service which gives users a street-level view and enables them to virtually explore a destination.
“Ireland is known for its fabulous scenery and our landscape is dotted with historic monuments, such as the Rock of Cashel. We wanted to show as much of it as possible, so we got out the Street View Trike and started pedalling to add to our collection of Irish imagery. We think it will be a really great boost to Irish tourism that visitors to Ireland will now be able to whet their appetite before arriving on our shores,” said John Herlihy, Google’s vice-president of online sales and operations.
Shaun Quinn, CEO of Fáilte Ireland, said, “With the vast majority of potential visitors researching and planning their holidays through the internet, you are either online or unknown.”
“Giving visitors a real feel for all there is to see here, technology such as Street View will give us the cutting edge needed to attract the 21st-century traveller and win the business, revenue and new jobs that Irish tourism has the potential to achieve.”
Google’s Street View Trike started gathering the imagery of some of Ireland’s top tourist destinations and historic monuments last September. The 18-stone mechanical masterpiece is composed of three bicycle wheels, a mounted Street View camera and a specially decorated box containing image collecting gadgetry. It comes replete with a very athletic cyclist in customised Google apparel. The Trike collects images from destinations the Street View Car can’t access.
As with all Street View, faces and licence plates will be blurred if they have been captured by the Trike.
